Czech Republic

In January 2012, the penetration rate of fixed broadband is 23% of the population, still below the EU average of 27.7%. The Czech Republic has 65.7% of fixed lines providing speeds of 10 Mbps and above and 5% of lines providing speeds between 30Mbps and below 100Mbps and 0.7% of fixed lines providing speeds equal or above 100 Mbps. The percentage of lines above 10Mbps is 17.3 p.p. above the EU average rate of 48.4% of lines in this speed range. Mobile broadband penetration is 49.5%. However, penetration of dedicated data services cards, modems and keys only is 6.1%. In 2011 63% of the population use the internet regularly below the EU average of 68%. With regards to disadvantaged people, the rate was 45%. 24% of citizens have never used the internet. Take-up of eCommerce is below EU average. 39.1% of businesses purchased online, and 25.8% sold online, 38.5% and 25.2% of SMEs did so respectively.
The Czech Republic has made substantial progress in the take-up of online public services by citizens in 2011 at 42%. On the converse, usage of eGovernment by businesses has retraced by 2 pp at 87% but still above the EU27 average (84%). In 2009, business expenditure on R&D (BERD) in the ICT sectors amounted to 179 mio €.
The share of ICT in total BERD is low average, at around 15%.